Democratic Senator of West Virginia Joe Manchin announced in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker his potential consideration for running for president as a third-party candidate in 2024.
Manchin has previously skirted questions on presidential aspirations. Despite acknowledging that there’s ample time for a third-party candidate, he maintained, “It’s not about me.” However, his participation in a July event hosted by the centrist group “No Labels” did raise questions about his potential White House campaign.
He suggested that President Joe Biden had been “pushed too far to the left” on policies ranging from engird to migration, citing the unprecedented levels of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. He also said he does not believe Biden and Harris are in the strongest position to defeat former President Donald Trump.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure, to mobilize that moderate, sensible, commonsense middle,” he explained.
“The business of politics has gotten so big because the business model is a Democrat business and a Republican business and it’s really forgotten about the people to a certain extent,” he added.
This comes as his most explicit potential presidential ambition statement, following last week’s declaration that he would not pursue reelection in 2024. This decision sets the stage for an almost certain switch of his seat to a Republican holder, sparking further speculation about his potential presidential bid.